Injuries add traumatic touch to competition

Updated: March 23, 2011 4:10PM

The song "Eye of the Tiger" was blasting as teams, clad in an array of colors, came from all different directions at the Valparaiso High School field house.

The march that signaled the beginning of Saturday's Duneland Conference gymnastics meet was a chance for the spectators to see the competition. And it was a chance for the girls to get pumped before performing.

But notable amongst the group of athletes walking out, were the girls on crutches. While the rest of the team was set to vie for glory, these members could only offer support. Injuries had prohibited opportunities at one of the biggest matches of the season.

Among the group of exemptions was Merrillville's Valerie Bly. According to Pirates coach Diane Roberts, one of the Pirates' top gymnasts has a high ankle sprain. Plenty of irony surrounds this injury.

In 2010 the Pirates were near the top of the state rankings. Then, in the middle of the season, the squad's top two all-around girls had career ending ACL injuries. At the time, Bly was instrumental towards putting the situation into perspective for the team.

"What was left of our team was this year's team," Roberts said of Bly‘s attitude.

Injuries, like those experienced by Merrillville, can happen to any team in the region or elsewhere. Due to the rigorous nature of training and competing in the vault, beam, bars and floor exercises, gymnastics has proven to be one of the most injury-prone sports. According to the website www.gymnasticsrescue.com, there are more than 100,000 injuries treated each year in the U.S. related to gymnastics.

Traumatic

In a word, big injuries are traumatic. At least, that's how 10-year Crown Point coach Ami Pysh described the events from 2005.

During a dual meet that season, a CP underclassman was performing on the bars when she fell. The resulting injuries included both an ACL issue and a dislocated knee.

"It was sad - it was traumatic. You learn lessons from things," Pysh said. "There was nothing I could've done. I guess I just would've had to let her land on my body."

Trent Trump, 15-year Athletic trainer at Crown Point, described the knee injury while putting both of his fists together in a separated motion.

"We had a girl totally dislocate her knee, not the knee cap, but the whole knee," Trump emphasized.

Despite a second ACL injury to a different athlete, which she competed through, the Bulldogs finished out the end of their season in fifth place. Before the setbacks the group had the top ranking in the state.

"I think the kids saw the will - they couldn't complain about tweaks," Pysh said.

Pysh said depending on who gets hurt, it can drastically change things.

"It depends on who does it," she said. "Unless you have the depth that Valpo and Chesterton do, it's all she wrote."

It does not take a complex move to get hurt. Not every injury is caused during highly technical moves. In fact, a lot happen with every day routines.

For example, when the Crown Point girl fell, it was during a regular motion on the bars.

"It (getting injured) was something that she typically wouldn't have done. It wasn't a hard (move)," Pysh said.

That experience is similar to one from second-year Lowell coach Brynn Denton.

Denton graduated from Lowell in 2005, competing on the gymnastics team while there. While warming up on the bars before a meet, she fell on her shoulder. She decided to still compete in the event and got injured while doing a whip-back on the floor exercise. Since the moment her shoulder popped out of socket, Denton has had seven surgeries, leading to a cartilage transplant). She was limited to the beam for the remainder of her high school career.

"I just slipped. I was coming off the bars to do a dismount," Denton said of the moment, where slight panic set in.

"I'm good now, it only took seven total surgeries," she quipped.

Ways of prevention?

Is it a brace or that perfect tape job that can prevent the most pain? Or what about particular training methods? According to Trump, sometimes none of these things help.

"I don't think you can prevent it - it's the nature of the sport," he said. "If the mechanism of the injury is there, the injury is going to happen."

While some injuries are career altering, others can include minor cists and other tweaks to the body that the girls play through.

"When we say it's an all-around sport, it truly is. It encompasses all parts of the body," Pysh said. "They're hurting. There's not one kid out there that won't tell you she's hurting at least one part of her body."

Of course, good lines of communication have to be in place between players and coaches.

"You're not always going to feel perfect. However, we try to keep the lines of communication open," Denton said.

Roberts, who has been coaching 38 years, said things have changed drastically with technology and young girls shouldn't be scared away from the sport. She cited a national study that puts three sports ahead in injuries.

"We never want to discourage young girls," she said. "(With) new innovative mats, pads, everything is geared towards safety. Especially the facilities in Northwest Indiana (with) state of the art equipment."

But should it happen, earlier is better.

"Our hope is always that, if it's meant to be, an injury happens early in the season," Roberts said.

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